BlackBerry's PlayBook

RIM, the maker of BlackBerry devices, is jumping into the tablet market levered open by Apple's iPad – but says that it is aiming its "PlayBook" at businesses, rather than individual consumers.
Renewing its focus on its traditional users, who lie within corporations rather than in homes, the company's co-chief executive Mike Lazaridis announced the product by saying that the PlayBook – whose 7" screen is smaller than the iPad's 9" screen – is "the world's first professional tablet" and will contain features requested by the governments and corporations which need to control users' access to content and devices.
The device, whose development and details had been rumoured for months, will be in the hands of certain enterprise customers from October, though no price has been given. It will be more widely available from next year.
Following Apple's successful launch of the iPad in April – with 3m sold in 80 days, and analysts forecasting that it will have sold more than 10m in 2010 – a number of companies have pitched into the market. Samsung and Viewsonic announced versions which will run Google's Android operating system, while last week a video leaked apparently showing a tablet from HP running Microsoft's Windows operating system.
The RIM Playbook will run its own QNX operating system, said Lazaridis – which will make it unable to run apps written for BlackBerry phones. However it will be able to run programs using Adobe's Flash technology, widely used for video, adverts and other interactive content on the web, and programs written as standard web pages.
RIM has struggled in recent months as it has lost share in the US smartphone market to Apple's iPhone and phones running Android, which has led some analysts to downgrade its stock.
But RIM may face an uphill battle even to displace Apple from a number of enterprises. A leaked email list earlier this year showed that the iPad had rapidly acquired a large number of users among the top ranks of US's political and military, and its ability to communicate with Microsoft's Exchange and IBM's Lotus Notes systems has given it some acceptance within corporations.
RIM may instead have to focus on its key strengths, such as its use of encryption for transmitting email, which has made it prized within corporations – though it has also brought it into collision with governments in India and the Middle East which want to be able to wiretap that data.
Robert Filkins, of the telecoms consultancy Coleago Consulting, suggested that RIM's longstanding relationship with corporations could stand it in good stead over Apple: "'Enterprise' tablets which use RIM or Windows or even Android operating systems are likely to be more appealing to system administrators and IT directors within larger enterprises who buy in bulk according to the time-honoured rule of 'tried and tested'. IT directors are likely to have trusted relationships with RIM and Microsoft Windows rather than with Apple."
"However, the iPhone has made some inroads into the enterprise sector, and in time Apple's devices may well become more prevalent in the business market. For now though, consumer and enterprise remain distinct market segments and RIM's PlayBook could well establish itself over the iPad in the corporate environment."

Linksys Router Advanced Options

Filters


Filters block specific internal users from accessing the Internet. You can set up a filter through an IP address or a network Port number.



To Modify Filter Settings

Enter the IP addresses that you want to filter into the IP address fields. The users who have these IP addresses will not be able to access the Internet.

You can also filter users by entering their network port number. Enter the port numbers you want to filter into the port numbers fields. Users who are connected to the Router will no longer be able to access any port number listed there.

To block external parties from making data requests of your LAN, enable the "Block WAN Request" selection.

Click the Apply button to save any changes.



Forwarding

Port forwarding sets up public services on your network. When users from the Internet make certain requests of your network, the router will forward those requests to the appropriate computer. The router's DHCP function must be disabled to use Forwarding. Forwarding is generally used to set up a webserver, ftp server, or e-mail server on your network.



To add a server using Forwarding:



Enter the port number used by the server. On the same line, enter the IP Address of the server that you want the Internet users to be able to access.

Configure as many entries as you would like until all of the link entries are filled.

Click the Apply to save the settings.



Dynamic Routing

With Dynamic Routing you can automatically adjust to physical changes in the network's layout. The router, using the RIP protocol, determines the network packets� route based on the fewest number of hops between the source and the destination. The RIP protocol regularly broadcasts routing information to other routers on the network.



To set up Dynamic Routing:



Choose the correct working mode. Gateway Mode should be used if your Linksys router is hosting your network's connection to the Internet. Router Mode should be selected if the router exists on a network with other routers.

Choose the protocol by which you transmit data on the network.

Choose the protocol by which the Router receives network data.

Click the Apply button to save your changes.



Static Routing

If there are multiple routers on your network, it is necessary to configure the unit's static routing functions. The static routing function determines your network�s data paths. Use static routing to allow different IP domain users to access the Internet through your Cable/DSL Router. Click on the Show Routing Table button to view the current routing table.



To create a static route entry:



Select a Static Route Entry from the drop down list. The device supports up to 20 static route entries.

Enter the following data for the static route:

Destination LAN IP : Enter the network address of the remote LAN segment. For a standard Class C IP domain, the network address is the first 3 fields of the Destination LAN IP, while the last field should be 0.



Network Mask : Enter the Subnet Mask used on the destination LAN IP domain. For Class C IP domain, the Subnet Mask is 255.255.255.0.



Gateway IP : If the Linksys router is the main IP router to connect your network to the Internet, then your Gateway IP is the same IP Address as the Linksys router. If you have another router handling your network's Internet connection, enter the IP Address of your main Internet router here instead.





Click the Apply button to save your changes.



DMZ Host

The DMZ Host setting allows one local user to be exposed to the Internet to use a special-purpose service such as Internet gaming or Video-conferencing. To expose one computer, enter the computer�s IP address and click the Apply button. Inactivate DMZ by entering a zero (0).

For more details please refer to the documentation that came with your router and check the Linksys website and other resources for additional information.

PDF can be harmful?

20 Years ago Adobe created Portable Document Format that we called as PDF to be common format for any of the device it uses to view or print. But unfortunately so many exploits uses PDF files to attack computers.

Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer at F-Secure Corporation, has been tracking the use of PDF files by malware coders, both as widespread threats and threats targeted for specific purposes. Now it’s revealed PDFs can contain embedded videos, music, and 3D objects with JavaScript for rendering. Not only even these it can launch executable files and can send data to the remote server. So it’s no wonder there are regular security problems with PDF readers in general.

But everywhere have to use PDF then how we can be secure completely avoid opening PDF documents on local machines instead of the use services such as Google Docs. If you're using Chrome, Firefox, or Opera, you can install the gPDF plug-in to automate the process for web-based PDFs. For your local files use a PDF reader that's as unpopular as possible fewer users a product has, the less attacks it will attract.

Difference between Server RAM and Desktop RAM

Server RAM is slower than the Desktop Ram. The desktop RAM is built for speed however the server RAM is optimized for Crash resistance and loss of data.

The Server RAM usually contains ECC – Error Correcting Code. ECC also commonly called EDAC protected memory helps correct parity errors which makes ECC RAM less vulnerable to loss of data, data corruption and possibility of a crash. This makes Server RAM much safer. Due to the implementation of ECC, these RAMs are a bit slower than their Desktop counterparts and are pretty expensive too.

On the other hand, Desktop RAMs are manufactured for speed. These RAMs neither have ECC nor are they compatible. Hence Desktop RAMs are faster than a Server RAM however, prone to crash or data loss when subjected to higher amounts of stress. ECC Memory would not be supported by Desktop Motherboards and the BIOS. Hence it is advisable to check if your motherboard and BIOS supports one if you are planning to make your desktop into a server.

The Risk of Social Networks

In the last few years daily internet users been increased significantly. Online social networking sites is the main cause for spend more time online in the day in personal lives. Obviously these have opened up new opportunity to share knowledge, ideas and common interest in a way that would otherwise be impossible.

However, openly sharing details our personal lives in online can evolve potential security risk. Although these details may seem harmless, easily any one can make life significantly for identity fraudsters being able to find a date birth, full name, home address, contact no’s on an online profile. This allows any fraudsters easily set up a credit card in someone else’s name and use it for any kind of fraud stated works.

As a good practice social networking users should not appear their full names, phone numbers, addresses and family member’s details. If someone really wanted to do it share only with the friends know well personally instead of public for everyone

Ethernet, Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet

Ethernet is a very common method of networking computers in a LAN using copper cabling. Capable of providing fast and constant connections, Ethernet can handle about 10,000,000 bits per second and can be used with almost any kind of computer.
While that may sound fast to those less familiar with networking, there is a very strong demand for even higher transmission speeds, which has been realized by the Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet specifications (IEEE 802.3u and IEEE 802.3z respectively). These LAN (local area network) standards have raised the Ethernet speed limit from 10 megabits per second (Mbps) to 100Mbps for Fast Ethernet and 1000Mbps for Gigabit Ethernet with only minimal changes made to the existing cable structure.

The building blocks of today's networks call out for a mixture of legacy 10BASE-T Ethernet networks and the new protocols. Typically, 10Mbps networks utilize Ethernet switches to improve the overall efficiency of the Ethernet network. Between Ethernet switches, Fast Ethernet repeaters are used to connect a group of switches together at the higher 100 Mbps rate.

However, with an increasing number of users running 100Mbps at the desktop, servers and aggregation points such as switch stacks may require even greater bandwidth. In this case, a Fast Ethernet backbone switch can be upgraded to a Gigabit Ethernet switch which supports multiple 100/1000 Mbps switches. High performance servers can be connected directly to the backbone once it has been upgraded.